Having trouble making out the tiny type on your Mac’s display? In just a few clicks, you can magnify the entire screen—a handy trick, particularly for anyone with iffy eyesight.
Besides zooming the entire display, you can also set your Mac to zoom in “picture-in-picture” mode.
Here’s what you do (and here’s the Windows version of this tip, by the way)…
- Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen, select System Preferences, then click the Accessibility icon.
- On the next screen, click “Zoom” in the left column to see all your zoom options—and yes, there are a bunch.
- Want to use the keyboard to zoom your screen? Click “Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom,” then start zooming by pressing COMMAND + OPTION + 8. To zoom in, press COMMAND + OPTION + “=” (equal sign), or zoom out by pressing COMMAND + OPTION + “-” (minus sign). To turn zooming off, press COMMAND + OPTION + 8 again.
- You can also use the trackpad to zoom the screen. Check the box marked “Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom,” then scroll on the trackpad while pressing one of three keys: CONTROL, OPTION, or COMMAND. (Choose which key you want to use from the pull-down menu.)
- Besides zooming the entire display, you can also turn the cursor into a magnifying glass. To do so, click the menu labeled “Zoom Style” and choose “Picture-in-picture.”
- Last but not least, you can customize almost every aspect of how zooming behaves by clicking the “More Options” button. For example, in “Picture-in-picture” mode, you can set the degree of magnification, choose whether the magnification frame follows your mouse or stays put, or have your Mac speak aloud any magnified words after a short delay. In “Fullscreen” mode, you can set the maximum and minimum zoom, as well as determine whether the zoomed-in screen moves as you move the cursor.